Monday.com Review - A Closer Look At Monday.com Email Marketing

What Is Monday.com?

This tool allows you to create a central hub of communication between different departments and campaigns. A well-maintained live automation system allows updates from integrated software to be relayed in real-time, ensuring an efficient workflow with an effective tracking system.

Monday.com Pros & Cons

Pros

• Easy to use - A clean UI combined with a help guide always one click away and a variety of templates makes it easy to rig the tool up for what you want. The community page is also very active, with forums for feature requests and the ability to hire specialist setup help

• Centralized hub - With working from home becoming more common recently, effective communication has become a lot harder. Having all your requests, task updates and campaigns together in one hub, with the ability to set automated events, could make this transition a lot smoother

• Simple integrations - Choose from 40+ integrations from various different platforms from your homepage and set up notification commands. This allows various groups to be instantly notified of any updates relating to an integrated service

Cons

• Impractical price structure - The way price plans are grouped means prices can vary disproportionately, without offering the same flexibility as other companies providing similar services. I’ll be looking into this in more detail later

• Learning curve - When you’re adopting a company-wide tracking system, you need to spend time training employees on how everything works, and as we all know, time is money! A feature that allows external guests to access the visual data also assumes that the guest is able to navigate the system without wasting time on tutorials

Who Monday.com is Recommended For?

The pandemic has resulted in lots of changes for businesses, and a biggie is the change to working from home. With that comes changes in the way we’re able to communicate, and Monday.com could be the solution to your communication problems. 

If this resonates with you, there probably isn't a better time to get a new bit of kit to help you organize your workforce in one place, right?

Who Is Monday.com Not Recommended For?

Change can be a scary prospect! If you find yourself running away whenever someone mentions the “C” word, you might want to start breaking into a jog - Monday.com is, in essence, a service that changes the way that you communicate.

You might also want to check up on which emailing marketing integrations they have available before locking yourself into a contract, as the options for app store integrations are limited.

Monday.com Pricing

The above costs are monthly, with discounts for annual subscriptions. Pricing is set per “seat”, (how many users with admin access), with options for 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 100, 200+. This incremental increase might cause some scalability issues.

If you have a 40 seat basic plan and hire 1 new employee, you might find yourself gawking at your screen when your next bill costs $160 extra for a 50 seat plan. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Cancellation / Refund Policies

Monday.com promises a probated refund if your request gets filed within 30 days of purchasing a 1 or 2 year subscription. If you request a refund after this time, you won’t be seeing that money again, but your subscription will end at the end of the contract period. You’ll, of course, still be able to use the tool for the remainder of this duration.

Monday.com Features

Due to its wide variety of business uses, Monday.com has plenty of features for various different functions. Below I’ll be looking at which of those features you’ll find most handy for your email marketing needs.

·       Mobile / Desktop / Online Access

Have you ever clocked-off then remembered you forgot to update the status on that last task before you left? The ability to access your hub from mobile, desktop, and online, means you can rectify that from anywhere. Phew.

·       Guest Access

If you’re on anything above the “Basic” plan, you have the option to add guest access. A great feature if you’re regularly working with external contractors, but maybe impractical if they aren’t familiar with the interface.

·       Clean Data

Import your data and dates into the tool and translate the numbers into clean, customizable charts and graphs. Having everything following similar designs makes for easy viewing and quick analysis.

·       Task Automations

Having the ability to automate tasks means less time figuring out what goes where and more time just cracking on with it. Create queries that control where work is sent and start/stop campaigns based on custom parameters.

·       24/7 Live Support

Not everybody stops working at the weekend, afterall. Monday.com’s support network means they are available to help any time. The “Premium” price plan comes with VIP support and your own accounts manager. Ooh, fancy!

·       Customization

This tool is highly versatile in potential uses for different businesses. There are templates to get you going initially with free seminars demonstrating how to customize your hub for different needs. And don’t worry, they already have one for marketing teams.

·       App Store

The internal app marketplace, accessible from your hub, provides some extra features from external integrations to cosmetic changes. There’s nothing revolutionary here, but a few bits-and-bobs to make your life that bit easier. It’s here where you can integrate selected external services.

·       Ease of Use

The customizable UI makes it easy to adapt the tool to your needs allowing you to easily navigate what you need. Having the built-in help guide and marketplace located in your hub means nothing is more than a few clicks away. 

FEATURES SCORE: 4/5

Monday.com Automation Features

Automation for this tool can feature in a variety of ways, and the recipe feature makes it easy to create otherwise tricky automations by following a simple format. The “When ____ , ___” makes for endless possibilities and applies for in-house services and integrated apps alike.

Email marketing automation - You can take the above format and apply that to an integrated email marketing service. Examples like “When email isn’t delivered, add contact to failed” and “When campaign is finished, stop sending emails”, show that different combinations can be cleverly assigned to automate specific functions.

Monday.com Software Integration

File Sharing - Integrations with Dropbox and G-Drive mean you can easily keep all your images and documents in one place for easy access from your hub.

Data Import - Use Excel to upload all of your data and integrate it with the in-house analytic function for clear viewing. Sync with your personal email and calendars with integrations from Outlook and G-Mail.

Apps - Monday.com has 40+ app integrations at your disposal, for various different functions. For email marketing specifically, you’ll want to check the service you use is available on the marketplace integrations.

These integrations can be added and implemented so easily, you’ll be questioning whether you really need to hire that second IT whizz.

Monday.com Alternative Brands

HubSpot - A familiar name in the CRM world for a reason. With this platform, you’re getting high quality and a solid reputation for a tool that will give you access to features designed to help you grow. They offer in-house email marketing services as well as advanced automation possibilities. This tool also comes with integration with Monday.com.

Constant Contact - As an all-in-one marketing platform, this could offer a nice alternative. You’ll have a range of features with the ability to create an ecommerce platform, website and email marketing campaign. All packaged separately and affordably so you choose exactly what you need.

EmailOctopus - A simple, effective tool for email marketing with great automation capabilities. The pricing is scalable with your business and affordable, starting from $20 for the standard plan. There’s also a free plan for the tight pockets and the option to integrate with Amazon SES for a reduced cost.

Conclusion

The events of the pandemic mean there’s never been a better time to adopt a new communication and tracking system. Instead of flying into a blind panic at the thought of having to organize a scattered workforce, you could give Monday.com a try. 

The complications and stress behind changing to a new workflow organization tool can be off-putting. But with a highly customizable UI, built-in help guides, simple automation systems, and integrations, you can make a hub fine-tuned to your needs.